“Too cheap to meter.” That’s how nuclear power was marketed to the American public in the 1950s. “Too costly to matter.” That’s how the conservative “Economist” magazine characterized nuclear power in an op-ed May, 2001. 

A Jan. 12, 2009 “Time” magazine article describing nuclear power claims that “...new plants would be not just extremely expensive but spectacularly expensive.” The only positive outlook for the nuclear industry in this country is via government handouts, courtesy of American taxpayers.

The nuclear industry itself projects that electricity from a new nuclear power plant will cost 15 to 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, more than twice the amount Rocky Mountain Power currently charges its residential customers in Utah. Even the French company Areva, the poster child for the nuclear industry, is behind schedule and over budget on its nuclear renaissance showpiece under construction in Finland.

Despite this dismal outlook, Blue Castle Holdings, Inc. hopes to construct and operate a nuclear power plant in Green River. Does CEO Aaron Tilton expect Utah ratepayers to eventually foot the bill for his folly?

Isn’t it time to let nuclear power plants follow slide rules, typewriters, rotary-dial telephones, and other dinosaur technologies into the historical section of a science and technology museum?

—Pete Gross

Moab